Monday 7th July 1834

Up at 7 ½ got a cup of Coffee, saw the Church, & off for Nant Bourrant, where we breakfasted, ascended Col de Bonhomme, heard story of Mr. Campbell & Mr. Rowley being starved to death in September 1832 – they had breakfasted & were off late from Nant Bourrant, did not get to top of Mountain till 2 oclock in the day, rain, & snow then came on, & the cold took hold of Mr. Rowley who could not walk – , when his cousin saw him dying, he became panic struck, & begged them to leave him to die also, however this they would not do, & the guide carried him on his back to the first chalet, those only who have travelled the road, can form an accurate idea of the difficulty of this carrying him; when arrived at the Chalet, the guide

left him to the Care of its inhabitants & two remaining companions, & set off with the shepherds to fetch the dead man from the top of the mountain, in guides absence, the unfortunate young man was put into warm sheets instead of being rolled in the snow, & thus his life was sacrificed, the vital spark having fled before the return of guide; the two dead men were carried down to Chapu, where their unhappy companions passed the night, next day then proceeded, to Geneva, where they had the two gents embalmed & sent to England – Mr. Rowley was about forty, & Mr. Campbell an only son of a Gent[leman] in London about 22 – – – – Much snow & no track over the Col de Bonhomme, sent our Mules before us to make a path,  –   –   crossed 21 small vallies [valleys] of snown [snow], An hour in [word crossed out] the snow in crossing Col de Fours. – then – went thro’ a pretty valley to Mottet – a mere chalet – but a comfortable apartment between cows, & the hay loft. woman very civil, & quick in putting up a curtain for a dressing room – some excellent mutton for dinner, afterwards went out, & talked to the wife, husband & brother, they only live there about 2 months in the year, & then go to Bourg St. Maurice for the winter, they had not been a month in the chalet when we were there –

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale WYC:1525/7/1/5/1/14

[up at] 4

[to bed at] 10 5/..

not the better for my bottle of vin d’Asti last night – fine morning Fahrenheit 60° at 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 a.m. – off from Contamines at 6 40/.. – dismounted in 3 or 4 minutes and walked all the way to Nantbourant – at 7 25/.. the good road ceases (i.e. the road wide enough and good enough for a cart or char) and we begin the ascent just opposite to Notre Dame de la gorge (on the other side the water) with its sixteen chapels – at 7 50/.. at the 1st cascade (right – a little below the road – not seen from it) of the St Gervais river – Nantbourant (the fall) (nant signifies waterfall) is in a fine cleft, the fall (150 feet) divided by a rock – about 50 yards lower down the stream (left) there is another fall, a little stream gushing down from as great a height as the other – the 5 or 6 minutes farther on the road (slow walking up the hill) another fall, the 2nd cascade, or nantbourant, (close to the road left) boiling thro’ a fine natural cleft and tunnel in the rock, and then passing under the bridge – the guides guessed 50 feet of fall – a little rainbow of spray here – none at the other fall – about 1/4 hour seeing the 2 falls – and at the neat wood auberge with green gallery, at 8 1/4 – found my cousin come felt the wet about half hour ago at 7 3/4 but no harm done – breakfast at 8 1/2 – very good milk and good bread and honey – the honey among the mountains excellent – off again at 9 3/4 – fine rather savage gorge – at the fine waterfall below the crête at 10 40/.. – at 11 10/.. each throw a stone en passant (like other travellers) on the monticule monument des dames, 3 dames du pays who were lost here in a storm many years ago – and after them the little plain here called le plan des dames – at 11 20/.. passed ten minutes of snow – Les blancs, small black and white birds (the snow-sparrow?) chirping and flying over the snow and among the high rocks – at the top at 11 46/.. and snow – bare slate mountain (right) almost smooth, steep slope – at 12 53/.. at the vrai sommet du col de bonhomme, having passed 17 pieces of snow – George’s foot slipt on the 3rd and he honeypotted down 20 or 30 yards – might have gone 2 or 3 times as far but luckily stopt himself against a small piece of projecting rock – the 2 English gentlemen lost just after passing the torrent – and here one turns, left, to Mottes Motets /Mottets/ (very fine) right, into the valley de Beaufort – straight forward to Chapiu /Chapieux/ – (down to Chapiu and thence along the bottom of the valley to the oratoire du glacier, and thence to Motets, would have been longer but much easier than passing the col des fours directly down upon Motets) – at the top of the col des fours at 1 1/4 almost all the way there from the vrai sommet du Bonhomme being on the snow – the top of the col des Fours a narrow ridge of snow, and a steep descent of 40 minutes on the snow from there – Adney frightened at first while we tried going diagonally – but driving the mules straight before us and I then George sticking our heels fearlessly in, Adney and David followed very well – at 2 10/.. very fine beautiful waterfall in 3 winding steps 80 to 90 feet down smooth blue slate rock – another small stream and series of falls 20 or 30 yards to the left, looking down the stream – Almost trackless descent upon what they in ridicule call la ville de Motets 2 or 3 shabby stone cottages or huts – then in about 20 minutes at our auberge at Motets at 3 35/.. – a splendid chalet – Adney and I had a small double bedded low room between cellar cow house and hay loft and George slept in the next room a large sort of better kitchen lighted from the door opening in upper and lower half – with mud floor, and up to the roof – at the other end (next to us) another place where the guides slept and the kitchen they cooked and lived in – the glacier de Motets very fine – just above us, and beyond so as to have good view – large and not very crévassé – dinner at 5 in 3/4 hour – cold milk and bread (instead of soup) did not touch that – boiled mutton good but done to rags and old potatoes full of eyes – Adney had had cold fowl (we brought it with us from Contamine) an hour before, and lay down – she took the vin d’Asti we had brought and I a little very weak brandy and water – both of us lay down immediately after dinner for 1 1/2 hour and slept – then got up and stood at the door talking to the people till 8, and I still later till 8 1/2 when had boiled milk and prepared for bed – the people, man and wife and 4 or 6 children and one little sick thing in arms (at 6/. a month) belonging to somebody of Bourg Maurice – and the man’s brother – they have only been a week arrived and will go back in September – the pasturage belongs to the two brothers – was bought by their father – and David thinks may be about 1000 quatrons (1 quatron = 312 1/2 toises carrés at Chamouni – David has about 60 toises carrés for winter fodder for his cow) – taxes very high here – 12,000 francs of property pays 3000 francs of taxes to government – a cow worth about 60 francs or more according to her goodness – a good calf worth about 20/. – Coll myrtle growing wild in the the fields about Contamine – gathered forget-me-nots (about 1 1/2 to 2 inches high) at the top of the col de bonhomme – daisies, large sort, or chamomile growing there and gentianella frequent in the ascent – It is rhod[odod]endron ferrugineum that covers the hills and that the people burn as they do box-wood at the Pyrenees and quercus coccifera or Kermes, about Montpellier – Adney has borne today very well – a little frightened at the last snow, thought her legs would have failed her, but got on following me and George, and hanging on David’s arm – Fromage de Gruyère 2/3 cow’s milk and 1/3 goat’s – all the wood here from Bourg Maurice – 4 francs per mule-load + the man 2/. + the mule 2/. – Two days about bringing it – i.e. one day going and 1 returning – just before dinner the woman helped me to nail up my green cloth counterpane for a curtain to make dressing room so that I had privacy enough to prepare for my cousin come since morning but no harm – very fine day – Fahrenheit 58° at 9 p.m. –

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale, SH:7/ML/E/17/0052